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WELCOME We’re really excited to share the results of this research with you – it delivers some valuable insights for marketers and those interested in digital. We commissioned this survey because we recognise that the opportunities presented by digital marketing – and the resulting changes to customer expectations – are changing the way brands interact with their customers. We brought in the research house OnePoll/72Point who surveyed a sample of 2,000 consumers and workers to discover their views on social media, online branding, what makes them want to purchase online and more… The emerging insights can help marketers to better understand the changing expectations of the digital consumer-worker and how that can – and should – impact their own marketing activities. Because, as every marketer knows, to plan effectively we need accurate information. We hope that the insights emerging from this research will help you to develop your own online strategies and to tailor your digital marketing in order to meet these new customer expectations and benefit from the opportunities they present. Happy marketing! The team at The Wee Agency www.theweeagency.co.uk CONTENTS OUR CHANGING WORLD 2 THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS 4 HOW DOES THE DIGITAL CONSUMERWORKER PREFER TO INTERACT? 12 HOW YOUR WEBSITE REFLECTS YOUR BRAND 16 CONVERTING WEB TRAFFIC TO WEB PURCHASES 20 THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA 22 THE PERILS OF GETTING IT WRONG 26 CONCLUSION 27 ABOUT THE WEE AGENCY 28 www.theweeagency.co.uk 1 OUR CHANGING WORLD The way we communicate is changing. We live in a technological age and the single biggest area where consumers are recognising and embracing new technologies is in personal communication. 49% Of survey respondents named the smartphone as one of the best technological advances in modern life. 2 www.theweeagency.co.uk This is affecting our working lives and business environment too. Our love for the latest personal communication devices is driving the ‘consumerisation of IT’ and has spawned the growing ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) trend. This is when people take their own devices into the workplace. We love technology, and see it as a great enabler for business growth, so we were keen to find out what people love and where they have gripes. When we asked our survey respondents to name the three best technological advances in modern life all top three answers were advances in the field of personal communication. • • • Almost half (49%) named the smartphone as one of the best technological advances in modern life. This was followed by wi-fi with 33% Then tablets/iPads came third on the list with 21% of the vote. It is fascinating to think that none of these technologies existed 20 years ago. Personal communication has changed rapidly in this time – presenting some interesting and diverse opportunities for marketers. However, our expectations have changed too. When we asked our survey respondents to name the three most irritating innovations in modern life, the top three were also in the field of communication. • • • 1st 1st 2nd Automated telephone services came out on top, with 42% of respondents naming them as the most irritating innovation in modern life. Call centres made it to second place with 29% And, in third place, email spam was named by 25% of respondents 3rd Marketers be warned: it’s easy to get communication wrong! It’s also interesting to note that the characteristic shared by the three innovations which topped our ‘poll of the worst’ is the lack of ‘the personal touch’. Furthermore, in fourth place, self-service supermarket check-outs were also voted an irritation, with 21% of respondents naming them. Although outside the field of communication, they also represent a move away from ‘the personal touch’. This supports the view that, while we may be embracing the opportunities for closer and more immediate communication that technological innovation has brought us, we still want that communication to feel human. Technological innovation or technological efficiency cannot replace good customer service. The challenge for marketers, then, is to leverage the opportunities for closer communication that technological innovation is bringing while still maintaining the personal touch. www.theweeagency.co.uk 3 THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS Which sectors are best at digital communication? When we asked our survey respondents to name the top five business sectors they thought were best at digital communication (including everything from their website to social media profiles to email newsletters to blogs) • • • • • Retail came out on top, gaining a vote from 43% of respondents. Food and drink came second, named by 33% of respondents Technology was named by 32% of respondents Finance got 31% of the vote 25% of respondents named the tourism sector as best at digital communication 50% IAL EC P S SALES 4 www.theweeagency.co.uk % Which types of businesses do you think are the best at digital communication with consumers? Agriculture Construction 3.55% 6.10% Health Food and drink 31.40% Legal 13.35% 33.30% Finance leisure 25.60% Manufacturing Renewable energy 3.00% Technology Tourism Utilities 8.00% Retail 42.65% 5.70% 31.90% 24.85% 29.35% Telecoms 18.85% Voluntary sector 3.50% None/dont know Other 14.65% 1.75% Retail was voted the sector best at digital communication. 43% 33% Food and drink came second with www.theweeagency.co.uk 5 THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS...cont THE POWER OF GETTING IT RIGHT A quarter of respondents said that travel was one of the top five sectors in digital communication. This high rating is borne out by the behaviour of our sample. When we asked ‘How did you research your last hotel stay?’ offline sources totalled just 10%* of respondents. Trip Advisor came top with 45% of our sample using it to research their last hotel stay. 38% checked the hotel’s website, while 36% carried out a Google search. It isn’t hard to conclude that by being good at digital communication, businesses are able to drive a large proportion of enquiries online. Digital tools and resources can quickly replace traditional business and communication models when they are done well. * This is made up of ‘asked friends for recommendations offline’ at 8% and ‘other offline research’ at 2% Holy Cow! Agriculture was perceived as the worst with: of who identified this sector as poor in digital communication 40% When we asked which business sectors are worst at digital communication, our survey ranked the worst offenders as follows: 6 • • • • • Agriculture was perceived as the worst; it was named by 40%** of people respondents Construction came second with 33%** of the vote The voluntary sector was named by 28%** of people who answered. Healthcare was perceived as one of the worst by 24%** of our sample Closely followed by the legal sector with 23%** ** Slightly smaller sample because 25% of our sample said they didn’t know or answered ‘none’ to this question. www.theweeagency.co.uk Trip Advisor came top 45% Tourism was voted one of the top five sectors in digital communication www.theweeagency.co.uk 7 THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS...cont HOW DID YOU RESEARCH YOUR LAST HOTEL STAY? Trip Advisor 44.90% Asked friends for recommendations online 8.15% Google search 35.95% Checked hotel websites 38.20% Checked hotel’s social media pages 8.00% 8 www.theweeagency.co.uk Asked friends for recommendations offline 7.85% Went back to somewhere we’ve visited before 7.65% Looked for deals on group deal site such as Groupon, Itison 7.45% Emailed to request information 4.40% Other offline (not on the internet) 1.75% None/not applicable 2.80% THE WORST AT DIGITAL COMMUNICATION Which types of businesses do you think are the worst at digital communication with consumers? Agriculture 29.70% Construction 24.85% Finance 13.35% Food and drink 17.90% Healthcare 17.75% Hospitality 6.85% Legal 16.90% Renewable energy 2.95% Technology 3.85% Leisure Telecoms 5.70% 8.90% Manufacturing 14.45% Retail 3.85% Voluntary sector 21.00% Other 1.50% None/dont know 25.20% Tourism 4.60% Utilities 18.20% www.theweeagency.co.uk 9 THE LEADERS AND THE LOSERS...cont POOR DIGITAL PERFORMANCE It’s interesting that ‘legal’ should rank among the worst five sectors at digital communication. This presents significant opportunity for companies in this sector to gain a competitive advantage. Especially when one considers the changing way consumers are researching professional services providers. Of course, the traditional way to find a solicitor or accountant would have been by personal recommendation and 49% of respondents said they would seek recommendations this way. However, digital marketing is taking on greater significance: • • 41% of respondents said they would research the professional services providers’ websites. 43% said they’d use a search engine. Indeed, social media is now a more important source when looking for a new professional services provider than the Yellow Pages. The trend here is that people tend to use a combination of online and offline sources of information, so whereas previously a recommendation from a trusted contact would win a firm the business, these days it needs to be backed up with a positive web presence as potential customers draw up shortlists from recommendations, then do online research to make the ultimate decision. Based on these results, legal and other professional services firms may wish to reconsider the importance they attach to digital communication. There is an opportunity here for professional services/businesses to conduct research into what customers want and expect from them online and adapt their digital marketing accordingly. There is evidence to suggest that, by doing this, they could secure significant competitive advantage. How would you research finding a professional services (accountant, solicitor, etc.) provider? Linkedin 8.55% Browsing social media pages 12.20% Recommendations in person 48.90% 10 www.theweeagency.co.uk Recommendations over social media/online 14.80% Researching their website 41.15% Using a search engine 42.75% Directories such as The Yellow Pages 10.05% Other 6.30% AN INTERESTING CORRELATION? We can certainly see a correlation between those sectors perceived to have good digital communication and a greater reliance on online sources to find suppliers. Similarly, there is also a correlation with those sectors perceived to have poor digital communication and a greater reliance on offline sources to find suppliers. If this is the case, then there are interesting opportunities for marketers in the sectors perceived as the worst at digital communication. Improving digital communication could help businesses to gain significant competitive advantage and also help to drive business online. This is, potentially, good news for new entrants in sectors perceived as being poor at digital communication. An effective digital communications strategy could help these new entrants to carve out a valuable niche in the sector with clear differentiation based on improved digital communication. Because of the relatively low cost of digital communications, new entrants could establish this positioning with relatively low capital expenditure. There is evidence to suggest that, by doing this, they could secure significant competitive advantage. @ SMS www.theweeagency.co.uk 11 HOW DOES THE DIGITAL CONSUMER/ WORKER PREFER TO INTERACT? £ £ £ £ £ 12 www.theweeagency.co.uk How important is digital communication to the consumer? We asked our survey respondents how they preferred to interact with a company when buying for a personal need and when buying to meet a business need. Their responses highlighted some important differences between business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) communication. How do you prefer to interact with a company when buying a product for a personal need? In person/ in store 32% Online via email 31% Online forms and ecommerce 16% • • • How do you prefer to interact with the company when buying a product for a business need? Email 35%* In person/ in store 26%* Telephone 15%* Online forms / ecommerce 14%* ~ • • • • * These results are based on a slightly smaller sample – 26% said this question wasn’t applicable to them/ they don’t buy for business needs. 32% 31% In person Online via email Preferred route to interact with a company when buying a product for a personal need www.theweeagency.co.uk 13 HOW DOES THE DIGITAL CONSUMER/ WORKER PREFER TO INTERACT?...cont When buying a product or obtaining a quote for a personal need, how do you prefer to interact with a company? In person/in store 31.50% Online via forms and e-commerce 15.15% Online via social media 8.00% Online via email Other 31.00% 2.40% By telephone 10.6% By post 1.35% When buying a product or obtaining a quote for a business need, how do you prefer to interact with a company? In person/in store 18.80% Online via forms and e-commerce 10.25% Online via social media 6.00% 14 www.theweeagency.co.uk Online via email 25.60% By telephone 10.95% By post 1.05% Other 0.90% £ 35% @ Here, we begin to see differences between the individual’s preferences in their different roles of consumer and worker. When buying a product for a personal need, the highest ranking type of interaction is in store or in person, favoured by 32% of respondents. But when buying a product or obtaining a quote for a business need, the largest group of our respondents preferred to use email (35%). of respondents involved with purchasing to meet business needs prefer to interact with a company via email. For both groups, both email and in store rate highly – they are the top two methods of interaction in both cases. For retailers – whether they are selling to businesses or consumers – the strongest promotional strategy, then, would be to augment in-store activity with email. By integrating in- store campaigns and promotions with digital marketing (in particular email) retailers can create the strongest possible engagement with consumers. Augment in-store activity with email for the best possible engagement. Given our earlier findings, it’s likely that the immediacy of interacting in store or via email is a significant factor in this order of preferences. These results also strengthen the notion that ‘the personal touch’ is an important influencer in consumer attitudes and buyer behaviour. These results are also a warning for B2B marketers not to think that statistics about consumer preferences in digital marketing can necessarily be directly translated into a B2B context. www.theweeagency.co.uk 15 HOW YOUR WEBSITE REFLECTS YOUR BRAND Our survey also found that there are some key differences in the expectations the digital consumer-worker has of websites for personal versus business use. We found that the best way for B2C marketers to improve the users’ experience is to ensure that the website is fast to load, but for B2B marketers a much more complex set of factors come into play: • • • • • • • • • Lack of information was the most common reason for not choosing a supplier; it was cited by 52%* of people who answered this question. 41%* of people are turned off if a website is poorly designed and doesn’t look professional. A difficult to navigate website annoys 30%* of our sample. 29%* found a lack of information about a company when searching online a real turnoff. Slow to load was cited as a turnoff by 26%* of people. No case studies on the website could also count against you; this was cited as a problem by 22%* of people who answered the question. Team profiles on the website are also important. 18%* of people who answered the question said a lack of team profiles would prevent them from choosing a supplier in a work context. No links to social media pages was cited by 12%* of our sample as a reason not to select a supplier. Finally, difficult to access via tablet or smartphone got 6%* of the vote. * These results are based on a slightly smaller sample - 23.65% of respondents said this question wasn’t applicable to them because they don’t source suppliers at work. What would prevent you from choosing a supplier at work when researching online? Website is poorly designed and doesn't look professional 31.18% No team profiles on website 13.38% Lack of information about company when searching online 22.21% Slow to load Lack of information 39.85% No case studies on website 16.65% 16 www.theweeagency.co.uk No links to social media pages 4.26% 8.75% Other 1.67% Difficult to navigate website 22.97% Slow to load 20.08% TAKE-AWAY FOR B2B MARKETERS Much of the data about digital marketing in the news relates to B2C attitudes and engagement – be wary when trying to apply this to B2B digital campaign planning or strategy. For instance, B2B purchasers are much less likely to accept online shops and ecommerce than they are when purchasing to meet personal needs. Given this reluctance, B2B marketers must be prepared to adapt online activity and content. It appears that in a B2B context, online has a greater role to play in driving enquiries, capturing prospect contact details, lead generation, and answering FAQs. Online content therefore needs to be shaped and created to support these activities. To enhance conversion rates, one solution might be to augment B2B online shops with massaging or video massaging tools, so that B2B customers can get the immediate responses and personal service or advice they are looking for. These preferences take on even greater importance, when one considers that in our survey, of the 34% of respondents involved in researching suppliers in a business context, only 19% didn’t use the internet. The remaining 81% of respondents involved in sourcing suppliers at work used online tools of one sort or another to find a supplier. Do you use the internet at work when researching potential suppliers for your business? No, my job doesn't need me to research suppliers 30.65% My job does require me to research suppliers, but I don't use the internet to do so Yes, on my business tablet/ smartphone 8.75% Not applicable / I don't know this is not my role 35.05% Yes, on my personal tablet /smartphone 5.55% 16.65% Yes, on my business desktop computer/laptop 22.95% I research business suppliers outside office hours when at home 2.80% If the majority of business sales are being researched and sourced through digital channels, B2B marketers need to ensure their online offering meets – or exceeds – customer expectations. www.theweeagency.co.uk 17 HOW YOUR WEBSITE REFLECTS YOUR BRAND...cont B2B MARKETERS’ CHECK LIST FOR YOUR BRAND’S ONLINE PRESENCE In order of importance: Populate your website with plenty of (relevant!) information. Ensure your website looks professional and is well designed. Think about how users will use the website and ensure it is easy to navigate. Make sure your business has coverage on other online sources – whether these are listings sites, directory sites, news sites or paid-for PR: back up your website with other online content. Is the technology fit for purpose? Are you using images at the right resolution? Make sure the site is not slow to load. Include customer case studies on your own website. Include team profiles on your own website. Include links to your own social media pages from your own website. Ensure your website has a responsive layout, or consider developing a mobile site so that the web site is easily used by tablet and smartphone users. Treat your digital presence and digital marketing as a long term investment into your business. Don’t assume that “If you build it, they will come…” a plan covering content, social media, pay per click, search engine optimisation, email marketing and online PR will drive crucial traffic to your website. • • • • • • • • • • • In contrast to the complex combination of factors that influence B2B buyer behaviour, the results of our survey suggest that, when purchasing for a personal need, consumers have a much more straightforward set of requirements from a website. respondents); and a lack of information annoyed 35% of our respondents. These were followed by doesn’t look trustworthy (24%) and if a website hasn’t been updated for a long time this annoys 22% of our respondents. When we asked consumers what three things annoy them most about a website ‘slow to load’ was our standout Design features were low on users’ list of annoyances: response: 58% cited it as an irritation. suggesting that getting the user experience right on a website matters more than what it looks like – surprising The next batch of complaints included difficult to navigate for such a graphic medium. (39% of respondents cited this as annoying); a lack of contact details (which annoyed 40% of our Standing out with a massive percentage was loading time on website 58% Slow load time Loading... 18 www.theweeagency.co.uk What annoys you most about a website? (Please pick your top 3 things) Slow to load 57.95% Too many different colours Hasn't been updated for a long time 5.70% 22.45% Lack of information 35.15% Difficult to navigate Website doesn't work well on mobile or tablet 39.35% 8.20% No contact details 39.80% Doesn't look attractive 11.35% B2C MARKETERS’ CHECK LIST FOR YOUR WEBSITE In order of importance, make sure that: Doesn't look trustworthy Other 0.65% 24.25% Too much information 4.90% • . oad to l t s a sf ly ite i ear ebs e cl d. r w a e fin Th ails det y to r act d eas t use n the te is Co ed an t u t i bo bs sta ht a we oug nd the . h t I’ve ney a vigate y of r lent . jou y to na p s ion ain eas ont mat te c ) infor i s . The evant! thy (rel wor t s tru ly. ular oks reg It lo d e at . upd tive It is t or trac t a s able k t o a n It lo ell o urs ks w ne. r o colo It w rtpho y e k a w sm a fe or s to any. k c ch, i m mu n it. It st t too o o o t – no ave ation n’t hnform s e i o It d little, too • • • • • • • • • www.theweeagency.co.uk 19 CONVERTING WEB TRAFFIC TO WEB PURCHASES Once a visitor to your site has decided to stay on your site, we found a range of factors can make the difference between that individual remaining a visitor or becoming a customer. Again, here our survey revealed a surprise stand-out answer: 54%* of our respondents (56% of our respondents who make online purchases) cited low postage charges as a key factor in whether they bought or not from a website. Other significant factors included: • • • • The website is easy to navigate was cited as a factor by 37%* of respondents who make online purchases Information about products needs to be clearly displayed, according to 29%* of our respondents who make purchases online 26%* of our respondents said it is important that the site offers online customer service Finally, not having to create an account when purchasing was cited by 23% of our respondents. * smaller sample size because 4.9% of our respondents said they don’t buy goods for personal use online. What makes you want to buy online from a company? Online customer service Website is easy to use on tablet and smartphone Website is easy to navigate 35.40% 24.45% 20.40% Low postage charges 53.55% Don't need to create an account when purchasing Quick response to enquiries 15.85% 21.55% No contact details/seeing a photo of who you are dealing with 8.40% Clearly displayed information on the products Strange or very long URL/web address 0.85% 27.65% Good interaction on social media 7.00% Nicely designed website 14.50% None - I don't buy online 4.90% Other 3.55% 20 www.theweeagency.co.uk YOUR CONVERSION MAXIMISER CHECK LIST Want to turn more of your site visitors into customers? Test these approaches on your site to see how they affect conversion rates. 1 4 Postage Charge Reduce or wave postage charges, perhaps building them into the topline costs that products are advertised at. 2 Support Offer instant massaging and video massaging customer service or customer support tools alongside your usual email or phone enquiries. 5 Navigation Improve on-site navigation, with different devices in mind. Shopping Checkout Offer visitors a ‘fast checkout’ option where they don’t need to create an account to purchase. 3 6 Information Include detailed product information so that customers can access it if they need to. Analytics Use analytics to review customer behaviour and identify any potential issues. www.theweeagency.co.uk 21 THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA When we consider the role social media plays in so many of our lives today, it is astounding to think that Facebook celebrated only its tenth birthday earlier this year. There has been a huge shift in the way we communicate, the way we shop, the way we interact with brands, and the amount of information available to marketers about the way we behave and buy online in those ten years. When we asked our survey respondents what engaged them most on social media we were conscious of the fact that these results will hopefully be of the most practical use. They are easy to test and verify with minimum financial outlay. Social media offers exciting opportunities to test out campaigns in a meaningful way: marketers Perhaps it is for these reasons that the have access to metrics like never before. answers to this question are among the least surprising. What engages you the best with brands on social media? Interesting content relevant to me 31.95% News on the latest products When my friends are engaging with the brand 16.95% 5.20% Videos 9.10% Quick response to enquires 27.10% Offers and discounts 39.45% Sharing funny photos 9.00% Friendly tone 15.25% When brands ask questions or for opinions 6.70% 22 www.theweeagency.co.uk Other 3.20% None - Not applicable - 24.85% Offers and discounts are mostly likely to engage our audience according to 39.45% of our total survey. 52.43% of our survey respondents who use social media cited offers and discounts as a key factor in their engagement with brands on social media. However, beware of purely using offers to engage with your audience, often the people who enter competitions aren’t always those who would be interested in buying your products or services at full price. Other high-scoring factors included: • • • • Interesting and revelent content 42%* A quick response to enquiries 42%* News on the latest products 23%* Friendly tone 20%* * smaller sample because 24.85% do not use social media, or don’t follow brands on social media. TAKE-AWAY FOR B2C MARKETERS Given our findings about what makes consumers want to buy online from a company, which placed high emphasis on low postage charges, it would make sense to try out free postage offers on your social media accounts and monitor conversion rates. Offers and discounts as a key factor If you aren’t doing this already, initiate a trial social media campaign offering free postage as your first actionable change based on this research. 57% www.theweeagency.co.uk 23 THE PERILS OF GETTING IT WRONG When we asked consumers what they didn’t like brands doing on social media their top were: Too much spam annoys 46% of our sample. Being too slow to respond to enquiries irritates 40% of our sample. 38% don’t like irrelevant posts. 34% don’t like uninteresting posts. And 33% of our sample are unhappy when digital communication is too sales led. • • • • • What don't you like brands doing on social media? Slow to respond to enquiries Irrelevant posts 39.92% 38.46% Lack of updates Too sales led 27.08% 32.73% Uninteresting posts Looking at these responses, it is not hard to see why ‘content marketing’ is such a buzz-phrase in modern marketing. Marketers must ensure content is valuable to its recipients. The good news is that social media offers unparalleled opportunities to segment audiences, track behaviours and target messages and content in a truly personalised way. Social media can become a really positive force for engagement for those brands which do this. It is also clear that it is worth investing in quality content if you want to ensure that your social media engages your customers rather than annoying them. These findings are also consistent with the findings from our questions about our survey respondents’ views about the technological www.theweeagency.co.uk 4.59% Other 1.13% Too much spam 33.93% 24 Too focused on the brand/product 46.31% advances of modern life. As we saw there, automated communications are unpopular; the human touch is important. The human touch is important when responding to enquiries – and is easy to get wrong. The second biggest complaint, of course, was being too slow to respond to enquiries on social media. This presents a new challenge to brands to be ‘always on’; monitoring social media enquiries, responding and being active on all social media accounts. This will include responding to crises quickly – and postponing all pre-scheduled posts and tweets until the issue is resolved to focus on communicating about any issues. Less than 1 /3 of employees aware of their organisations’ social media guidelines. Only 12% of companies where our respondents work have a dedicated social media manager There are obvious pitfalls brands must avoid, then, in the new social media world. And yet, our survey found that only 12% of respondents’ businesses had a dedicated social media manager. Who is most responsible for corporate social media updates at the company you work for? The marketing team 23.15% The PR team 16.70% The product team 9.50% A dedicated social media manager 12.00% An unexperienced intern 4.45% Everyone shares responsibility for social media 5.45% The management team 7.90% I don't know 18.75% None - we don't have social media 24.80% Even more worrying, 32% of respondents didn’t know their company’s social media guidelines for employees. Less than a third said they knew and fully understood their company’s social media guidelines. www.theweeagency.co.uk 25 THE PERILS OF GETTING IT WRONG...cont Do you know your company's social media guidelines for employees? We don't have social media guidelines for employees 20.10% I do know our social media guidelines and understand fully what I am and am not allowed to do 30.25% We have social media guidelines, but I don't know what they are 17.60% I don't know 32.05% It’s unclear whether the lack of resources devoted to social media reflects a lack of internal skills, a lack of confidence in the benefits to be gained from these emerging channels, or simply a lack of understanding of the changing skills set these new channels demand from marketers. It’s clear that some businesses are expecting other departments to pick up social media marketing tasks. This may explain the lack of 26 www.theweeagency.co.uk internal awareness of social media policies if those departments are lacking the skills, time or resources that digital marketing requires. Given the increasing importance of social media as a communication tool, there are significant opportunities for brands to gain competitive advantage through the better management and leveraging of their social media accounts. Digital communication is a potential source of real competitive advantage. CONCLUSION The new digital consumer-worker values new personal communication technologies highly. This presents exciting new opportunities for sectors where existing digital communication marketers to communicate with their customers, performance is perceived as poor. particularly in sectors where existing attempts at digital communication are perceived as poor. Given this potential, it is surprising that so few businesses are investing in dedicated social However, it is also clear that new personal media managers and ensuring that digital communication technologies are also a source communication strategies and policies are clearly of great annoyance to the new digital communicated throughout the business. If consumer-worker when brands get organisations have largely been slow to recognise communication wrong. the potential of digital marketing, then the rewards for those brands that do exploit the Therefore the new technologies also present opportunities it presents are evident. significant challenges to marketers, and place further demands on marketers as consumer Our research suggests the best way to maximise expectations change. Those businesses that are the potential of digital communication is to: already doing digital communication well are Provide personalised and relevant to the setting the agenda for customer expectations individual and helping to drive commerce online. Offer immediate resolution to enquiries and complaints Digital communication is a potential source of real Retain a human voice and the competitive advantage, particularly in those personal touch in all communication • • • www.theweeagency.co.uk 27 ABOUT THE WEE AGENCY The Wee Agency is an award-winning full-service marketing agency which brings together specialist expertise in every aspect of design, digital, PR and marketing. The agency was established in response to the new opportunities digital communications present as well as a gap in the market for a full-service offering for clients seeking to brief one team on a business challenge and receive a joined-up, full service response with a creative idea at the centre. 28 www.theweeagency.co.uk From website design and build to social media strategy and international PR campaigns, The Wee Agency can provide a wide range of services to support clients from multiple sectors. The Wee Agency 36 South Gyle Crescent South Gyle Business Park Edinburgh EH12 9EB First Floor The ERG Building 12-14 Seafield Road Inverness IV1 1SG 01463 214 995 www.theweeagency.co.uk 11 www.theweeagency.co.uk